Sunday, November 06, 2005

Brothers Grimm

For once Terry Gilliam has got it right. This historically based fantasy around the exploits of the Brothers Grimm (Matt Damn, Heath Ledger) is seasonal movie magic. Not a kids film by any stretch of the imagination this movie manages to deal with Red Riding Hood, the Gingerbread Man and all your favourite childhood tales and be really quite frightening at the same time. The settings are superb, - the forests of Thuringia and Westphalia under Napoleon's yolk are magnificently recreated using Prague as a stand in which seems to be the city of choice for all Napoelonic movies these days.
Full of gothic charm and period flavour (those poor geese must have got sick of being ridden through hastily) it is a visual feast. I'm not really a Gilliam fan as his jokes always seem a little lame and his surrealistic touches often unnecessary but this film did it for me - it almost made up for the disappointment I felt on seeing Baron Munchhausen.

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